Our 2 years old child sometimes asks to use the toilet, but then doesn't poop after all. We have been successful a few times, but sometimes it happens on the carpet instead. We keep saying that he should not poop on the carpet, but he still does it.

5 Answers
5

Two thoughts,
Yes your child is interested and should be encouraged, but your child might not actually be ready physically.
As well, do not get upset or punish the child when accident happens. As much as possible wear underwear at home, but a diaper or pull up out of the house and defiantly at bed time. treat accidents as matter of fact, clean up and move on.
I find at this stage bribery is not the answer because the child really has no control. Use bribery to get the child to sit on the toilet at regular intervals, not just when they make. Read a book to the child while on the potty to make them be able to sit longer. Sing the 'potty poop' song when they make.
Relax. the more relaxed you are the less of a deal it will be for them and they will learn.

I understand to be relax and singing to make him to be able to sit longer, but he himself after a few minutes cry to getting out from toilet, and then after about an hour, he walks toward us and tell us he has toilet again but this time, he already is pooping in front of our eyes while he says he has toilet(and there is no need to toilet longer!)
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Yasser ZamaniMay 16 '12 at 15:38

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Sit him on the toilet to 'finish'. He is trying, obviously, he just doesn't recognize the feeling in time. Try to see if you can figure what time of day it happens and get him on the toilet preemptively. Keep in mind that this is developmentally normal and he will get it, just give him time.
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morah hochmanMay 16 '12 at 17:32

OK, I'll try but he even is not trying; he just sits down and says 'cheeeeeeeshh' while he smiles for us. he is thinking that going on toilet and doesing it is just a game :)
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Yasser ZamaniMay 16 '12 at 17:40

Your child is starting to understand and that is good! As the parent of four children, I quickly learned that each child learns at their own pace...including the potty thing! The one thing we did that helped with our children was to take them to the store to buy "fun" undies (my daughter picked Barney...) All of my children responded with "I don't want to pee/poo on __" Continue to encourage and reward...stay relaxed, it will happen.

We bribed our toddler (just turned 3) with television, which he's normally not allowed to have. He also had conjunctivitis at the time, so he wasn't allowed to play with other children for fear of spreading the infection. So he had to stay home for at least three days with no other contact.

Every time he wanted to watch an episode of his favorite show (Curious George), he had to use the potty. Did it violate the recommendations of every pediatrician regarding television? Absolutely. But it worked; he now runs to the bathroom every time he needs to go (with some minor relapses when his sister was born). As a commercial plug, Netflix is great for this kind of thing; there are 70+ episodes of the show there, no commercials (beyond the show itself, of course), and no fumbling with a DVD that can get scratched by said three year old.

We tried potty training earlier, but he just wasn't ready yet. Some kids potty train earlier than others; friends of ours claim to have potty trained their daughter by 1.5 years of age, mainly by letting her run around without a diaper and saying that pooping/peeing on the carpet was bad, and that she needed to use the toilet. That approach, for us, just ended up with a lot of soiled floors.

My parents claim that I was potty trained at 2, mainly by making diapers extremely uncomfortable as soon as they got wet. According to them, diapers were just painful, especially if I'd had orange juice to drink, and so I wanted to be out of them as soon as possible. Today's diapers, by contrast, are so absorbent that there's a lot less discomfort. Cloth diapers might accomplish the same level of irritation, but we never used them, so I don't know.

I created an account here just so that I could upvote you for being so direct about bribery. Different things work with different kids. If bribery works for you, that's great.
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Mark DominusMay 15 '12 at 17:23

My child is not interested in TV or movie at all. Instead strongly interested to do what we do!
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Yasser ZamaniMay 16 '12 at 15:32

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@YasserZamani-- the trick is to find the thing your child wants, and that you can give them in 20-30 minute increments. Maybe a sticker for every time on the pot? Food-based bribes can seriously backfire, as in, all of a sudden the kid's eaten 20 cookies and is completely wired. Also, I think it's important to consider that your child may just not be physically capable of controlling themselves yet; they might not yet have all of those muscles sorted out yet.
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mmrMay 16 '12 at 17:35